City closes old Fire Hall #1, sets public hearing date to rezone land

The City of St. Albert closed its first and oldest fire hall building at 18 Sir Winston Churchill Avenue for good last week.

Mayor Cathy Heron said in an interview that only those from the fire department were present during the closing ceremony on May 2, which took place at the end of platoon 1’s night shift. Firefighters lowered the Canadian Flag and folded it for transport to the new station.

An official opening ceremony for the new building, located at 20 Gate Avenue, will take place June 8. Processions will see the flag replaced, with the old one squared away for display within the new building. 

City sets hearing date to redistrict land

At their May 2 meeting, St. Albert city council heard three options for the old Fire Hall #1 building: to demolish it and sell the land; to sell the land as is; or to consider leasing the land for commercial use. Councillors received financial appraisals for each scenario through a confidential memo. 

Ultimately, council voted unanimously to demolish the building and schedule a public hearing to change the land’s district to sell it. Council had already approved $852,500 for the building to be decommissioned during their budget process at the end of last year. 

The land is currently designated as municipal reserve. Council is looking to change the land’s designation to direct control mixed use (DCMU) to accommodate a commercial, residential, or mixed-use development with a maximum height of six storeys. Rezoning the land would allow the City to net the best sale price, according to a backgrounder outlining the options.

The proceeds the City makes in a sale of either former or current municipal reserve land must go towards a public park, public recreation area, to school board use, or to separate areas of land used for different purposes, the backgrounder said. 

Grenadier Park 

The 17.87-acre municipal reserve parcel containing the old fire hall also houses Grenadier Park. Though the City is only looking to subdivide and sell the portion containing the fire hall (which would be between 0.56 acres and 1.02 acres), it will need to redistrict the entire parcel due to rules surrounding municipal reserve land. 

"It’s a complex process," David Leflar, St. Albert’s chief legislative officer, told council. "The reason it is, is because the Municipal Government Act (MGA) — from a public policy point of view — doesn’t like municipalities removing municipal reserve designations."

Coun. Mike Killick said he would like to have a guarantee that the City will return the designation through a council motion. 

“I am trying to get to a place where I can give the residents confidence that once we take that off and do the subdivision that we're not getting rid of the whole park,” Killick said. 

Heron suggested Killick work with Leflar to prepare a motion to have council return the municipal reserve designation to the park that could be debated after the public hearing, scheduled for Sept. 19, 2022.